The Day They Came to Arrest the Book Read Online Free PDF Page A

abominable founder and the chief executive officer of the Citizens’ League for the Preservation of American Values. You think your young lawyer can handle him?”
    “Well, if he can’t”—Maggie Crowley smiled—“what about you? Actually, I wanted to invite you to bring your nineteenth-century American history class to the debate. It might be interesting for the kids to compare how the argument went then with how it’s going now.”
    “Yeah.” Nora nodded. “Not a bad idea. We accept, and we appreciate your invitation. Can my troops get into the question period?”
    “Oh, sure. Just remember to tell them to leave their guns at the door.”
       That afternoon, Nora Baines’s eyes were on Mr. Moore, who was standing in front of the wall of photographs in his office.
    “I cannot believe what I am hearing,” she said. “You are telling me that one of the landmarks of American literature is unsuitable for use in my class. Unsuitable for students in the third year of high school! I don’t know why I said that. It would be just as outrageous to deny
Huckleberry Finn
to sophomores and freshmen and—”
    “Calm thyself, Ms. Baines,” the principal said softly. “The reason we have so much teacher burnout, and principal burnout, is that we overreact to every little frustration, and God knows there is no more frustrating job in the world than what we do. I have often said that I would have a longer life expectancy if I had spent all these years in the Oval Office rather than in this one.”
    He chuckled, but Nora Baines’s face was of stone.
    “Look,” the principal said, “this is not a frivolous complaint. Nor is it a new one.
Huckleberry Finn
has been objected to by black parents and black organizations in other places. By respectable, responsible people, not extremists. It has been taken off high school required reading lists in Indianapolis and in New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. You see, I’ve been doing some homework.”
    “I do not care”—Nora Baines banged her hand on the principal’s desk—
“where
this book has been stomped on, mutilated, or burned by censors with the connivance—you hear me, connivance!—of people who call themselves educators. Who call themselves”—her voice rose sharply—“Americans!”
    “Ms. Baines—”
    “If you’re going to call me anything, Mr. Moore, please call me
Miss
. That other thing sounds as if you were a yardman asking me if there were any more chores for you to do. Now, George Mason—the very George Mason whose name this school bears—said something you should know about. He said it in 1776. Note the date well! In drafting Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, which led right to our Declaration of Independence, George Mason said: ‘Freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.’ And he did not mean just newspapers, Mr. Moore. He meant
books
, and anything else that comes off a press.”
    The principal moved to his desk and sat on its edge.“This has nothing to do with freedom of the press, Miss Baines,” he said. “We are not preventing anyone from publishing this book. However, freedom of the press does
not
mean that we must place in our school library, or use in our classrooms, every single book that is published. Freedom of the press does
not
mean that the First Amendment requires us to compel students to read a book that offends minority children and their parents.”
    “You know what I’m talking about!” Nora Baines struggled to keep control of herself. “You know damn well what I’m talking about. Freedom to publish is useless if people are not allowed to read what is published. And that certainly includes students. I still can’t believe what I’m hearing. We’re not talking about trash. We’re not talking about a piece of pornography. We’re talking about preventing our students from reading
Huckleberry Finn!
And why? Because it offends